St Guchi is one of the key brands of Teamware, the market leader in locks and hardware in the Malaysian market joined the ASSA ABLOY Group in 2015.

Archidex is South-East Asia’s leading industry trade event and this year marks its 18th edition and showcased more than 1,200 booths by 550 local and international exhibitors.

St Guchi has been participating in Archidex since 2009, making 2017 the eighth year of the local team’s participation. This year, St Guchi has showcased its latest digital door locks, mechanical locks, aluminium & glass as well as its fire rated door at the Archidex.

DDL category: unlocking growth potential

The simple and modern booth design, coupled with a strong theme and clear messaging, drew thousands to experience for themselves the various DDL demo kits – many of whom were impressed with the product’s keyless convenience and biometric fingerprint technology.

Newly appointed General Manager Francis Chang expressed his optimism concerning DDL’s potential growth opportunities and firmly believes that ‘Let’s Go Keyless’ will be the company’s springboard for success in 2017 and 2018.

“The DDL category is currently in its infancy with a significant opportunity for growth potential given the vastly untapped market in Malaysia. As most users still use mechanical locks, our strategy is to build upon St Guchi’s brand reputation and dealer network strength to collectively increase brand awareness and market share,” he said.

“With the proliferation of the Internet of Everything and Home Automation phenomena, we believe more and more customers will begin to make the transition to DDL – be it in retail or amongst commercial project developers,” he added.

Impressive 400 new leads generated

Archidex is endorsed by Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation and supported by the Works Ministry, Tourism and Culture Ministry, the Malaysian Conventions and Exhibitions Bureau and the Malaysia Green Building Confederation.

The exhibition attracted 36,000 visitors, including architects, interior designers and building industry players who came together to connect and collaborate. It is believed a total of MYR 1 billion (~USD 0.23 billion) worth of transactions took place during those four days.

Through the distribution of booklets and demos, the Malaysia team was able to obtain an impressive 400 new customer leads for the DDL category, capping off a great start to the ‘Let’s go Keyless’ campaign.

The team was also able to raise the profile and awareness of St Guchi and ASSA ABLOY by having the ASSA ABLOY endorsement at the booth and in all promotional materials.

The best is yet to come

The campaign’s success at Archidex is only the beginning of great plans for St Guchi DDL, of which Francis hopes to extend to other St Guchi product categories as well.

“While St Guchi remains one of the most recognisable brands in Malaysia, we aspire to be the market leader in all product categories and not just DDL. We will accomplish this by improving overall operational efficiency across our supply chain, inventory management and sales and marketing. We will also explore modern, creative methods to engage meaningfully with our stakeholders,” he said.

Francis believes that St Guchi’s eventual success lies not only in output but through cultivating a culture of excellence across the entire workforce.

“While we want to achieve strong profitability, it also matters how we arrive at these results. It is important that we as a team develop a strong sense of ownership in delivering quality products and services, whether to customers, dealers or suppliers. This shall be our unique competitive differentiator,” he concluded.

The St Guchi team demonstrating the functionalities of St Guchi DDL to Archidex participants

The wide array of St Guchi mechanical locks on display at the exhibition booth

The St Guchi team snap a group photo to cap off a successful Archidex 2017